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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316138">And I’m Good Friends With A Devil Or Two</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425'>Jen425</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Hundred Heroes Welcome You Home [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Decade, Kamen Rider W, Tokusatsu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crossover Friendship, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:47:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,075</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316138</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all places to run into the other Rider… at the library?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hidari Shoutarou &amp; Kadoya Tsukasa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Hundred Heroes Welcome You Home [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782238</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Tokusatsu Flash Fluffathon 2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>And I’m Good Friends With A Devil Or Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts"></a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you for this prompt. I needed an excuse to talk about Tsukasa and Shoutaro in the same sentence. And the premise was a lot of fun!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Shoutaro typically buys his books from a local bookstore. It’s the same one he’d frequented his entire life, and it always has what he needs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But of course, he still has a library card.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(It’s still where he’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> to get most of his books, back then. And it’s been useful, once or twice.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was Philip’s idea, though. Because he got in wondering about libraries, because he kind of is a library, and now they’re here.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well. It’s fine. As long as Shoutaro keeps his eye on his partner, this outing won’t be a problem at all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Which is probably why he ends up browsing the same collection of detective novels he’d browsed as a kid.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s almost cartoonish in its coincidence, after that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looks through the shelf after picking a book, and he sees a flash of a magenta camera. It could be nothing, just a coincidence, but no true hard boiled detective ignores his instinct.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And somehow he knows at a glance that something is off about the man he sees for mere moments.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So he investigates, and he finds the man still looking at…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Photography?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man turns.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, the Rider,” he says, calmly, and Shoutaro definitely does not jump. “I was going to look for you later.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro resists the urge to react, at that one. He has an image to maintain, after all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing here?” He asks instead, quietly and as he approaches the stranger.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Just passing through,” the man says, snapping his book shut. He returns it neatly. Man, does this guy not know how to support a library or does he just not care? “And you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My partner got overexcited,” Shoutaro says with a shrug, gesturing over to where Akiko was watching said partner ask increasingly strange questions about libraries to what at least seemed to be a very nice librarian. “I wandered off to browse.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see,” the other Rider says, and then “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a library before.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Seriously?” Shoutaro asks. The man shrugs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doubt I’d ever have wanted to, before I lost my memory,” he says. “Haven’t had a chance since.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>…wait.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You lost your memories, too?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man blinks, a strange simultaneous confusion and boredom in his eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nah, but my partner has,” Shoutaro says.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man hmms.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I get the gist of it,” he says. “Maybe this world will still be okay after…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He trails off. Shoutaro considers him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who exactly are you?” He asks. “Philip tried to find you but came up blank.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m Kamen Rider Decade,” the man says. “That means many things.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How about a name,” Shoutaro says. Something sharpens in the other Rider’s gaze, at that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kadoya Tsukasa,” the man, Kadoya, says. “And you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro smiles charmingly, tipping his head as he says “Hidari Shoutaro, private dete—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shoutaro!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>… damn Akiko, ruining his moment. Shoutaro curses and turns to find her by the entrance with Phillip, waving wildly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You were saying,” Kadoya says. Shoutaro sighs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We really should head back to our base,” he says. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then I guess it’s my time to finish passing through.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>…this is a terrible idea.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Any man with real pride would invite an equal to their abode, if you’d like to accompany us.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Conclusion about Kadoya Tsukasa: he is </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and he is kind of an asshole. He answers all of Philip’s questions noncommittally yet also adequately enough for Philip to move on. He barely seems to care about anything. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s… well, he’s hard boiled, but he’s also </span>
  <em>
    <span>annoying</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and kinda an asshole. And yet…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You lost your memories,” Kadoya asks, though it’s more like a statement. Philip blinks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he says. “It’s the only thing I don’t know.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… understand that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah yes. Do you have any theories about…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro leaves the secret part of the agency, then, and finds Akiko staring at the door holding a slipper that reads “demon?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oi,” he says. “What’s that for?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shoutaro, why did you let him in there?” Akiko asks. “Idiot!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s another Rider, isn’t he?” Shoutaro asks. Akiko huffs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I tried to tell you no,” she says. “You’re in for it later!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We met him for five minutes, and he helped us,” Shoutaro points out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro replies with absolutely nothing, to that. His own instincts say something is off about Kadoya, and no doubt that man is an asshole, and yet…</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>About an hour later, a man and a woman walk in. Also both feeling… a little off, though not to the extent of Kadoya.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Excuse me,” the man says. “You wouldn’t happen to know where a tall man with a magenta camera went, would you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re his partners,” the woman adds. “I’m Natsumi, and this is Yuusuke. Tsukasa’s growing a habit of wandering off on his own and let’s just say we aren’t impressed.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro turns to Akiko, who shrugs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go get him,” he says.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>…okay, so there might be a reason to like Kadoya besides instinct. No one other than a good hearted person could make their partner smile like this Yuusuke does.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, Kadoya returns to the agency, alone once more. Philip is researching something, and Akiko is out, and so it’s just the two of them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you want?” Shoutaro asks. Kadoya shrugs, sitting on the edge of Shoutaro’s desk.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nothing in particular,” he says. “Just wondering why you became a Rider.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“To help my city,” Shoutaro says, and it’s then that Kadoya gives him the most piercing look he has ever experienced. “And… to make up for my sins.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kadoya hmms, looking away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Maybe we’re more alike than I thought,” he says. “But my sins can never be fully undone. This world proves it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro considers him, in turn, though he doubts his gaze is nearly as piercing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re an interesting man,” he says.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Or so I hear.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Feel free to stop by when you want.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kadoya turns to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why?” He asks. Shoutaro shrugs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The world can always use more good people in it,” he says. “And I’d say you fit the bill.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see…” Kadoya stands then. “Thank you, detective.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shoutaro takes a second to reply to that because… thank you for what? Oh he’s probably supposed to know. Damn it!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“…Any time, as I said,” he says, far too late. Tsukasa actually smiles, at that.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>…well, who expected a chance meeting in a library to end with a new interdimensional ally.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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